Journal 81

[Chrissie777]

It arrived safely in Massachusetts yesterday. Thank you, Tony! ♥

[Hannah]

My journal arrived today. Looking forward to reading it!

[Anita Bensoussane]

'The Boys' and Girls' Circus Book' is a revelation to me, as I'd assumed from the title that it was a collection of stories about circus characters not a novel. The '.... Book' title is usually used for annuals , ie collections of stories brought out for Christmas each year, and was still being used in this way when I first had this sort of book as a Christmas present in the 1960s. It leads to me wondering whether there was any hard and fast 'guideline' rules for particular publishers about which books were called 'Annuals' and which were known as 'The ... Book' or 'The Bumper Book of...', 'The Boys/ Girls' Book of... ' etc; were the 'Annuals' titles an indication of a book being one in a regular series with the same characters, and the other titles used for everything else?

Was the use for this particular title in 1939 a sign that the book was meant to tap into the same market, or just a 'fall back' to distinguish it from the then current Galliano series?

Boys' and Girls' Circus Book was one of 7 annual-sized hardback books which were indeed released annually in December by News Chronicle, from 1933 to 1939. They came boxed. Most of them contained short stories but the first consisted of The Enid Blyton Book of Bunnies (later republished as The Adventures of Binkle and Flip) and The Enid Blyton Book of Brownies. The Enid Blyton Book of Brownies is a novel - even though, confusingly, The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies is a collection of short stories! The Enid Blyton Book of Bunnies might also be said to be a novel, though I'm never quite sure because it reads more like a collection of short stories featuring the same animal characters. For anyone unfamiliar with the News Chronicle books, they can be seen in the Cave (ignore The Brown Family, which is a different type of book):

https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/boo ... +Chronicle

The annual format may well have influenced the title of the book - along with the need to distinguish it from the Galliano's Circus series.

Also, this book is a good example of 'Enid Being Inclusive' with all her characters of disparate origins coming together in the circus, so it deserves to be flagged up on that account as important teaching for young children about accepting people of different origins and not being judgemental ; and the 'Big Brother' meddling of the authorities, with good intentions but not for the subjects' actual benefit, is still a live issue and struck me for the first time when I read 'Three Boys and a Circus' aged about seven.

Yes, critics of Enid Blyton rarely mention the inclusivity of her circus stories.

I re-read Three Boys and a Circus a few months ago, after not having read it for decades, and was struck by some of the similarities to Boys' and Girls' Circus Book.

[Boodi 2]

My copy of Journal 81 has just arrived and I can't wait to immerse myself in it as it promises to be a great read as always...so far I have only read the back page as I loved the full colour illustrations and Dinkie the Donkey is totally new to me. Many thanks to Tony and all the contributors for another splendid journal.

[timv]

Many thanks as usual to Tony and my fellow-contributors; a packed and absorbing Journal, with lots of great illustrations (including some of my favourite Betty Maxey ones from Five Get Into Trouble). The atmospheric Rubadub Mystery ones, line many of the Gilbert Dunlop ones from the Barney series, give a subtle sense of the extra depth that marks this series out from other EB adventure/ mystery books - especially the buildings and street views.) The pic on p. 25 of Aunt Lou's deceased daughter carol, whose presence looms over 'Come To The Circus', is also a real plus - I only ever read the non-illustrated Armada version of this book.

Plenty of interesting new angles in this issue's articles - which is what a multi-contributor magazine should and in our case does have. On Neville Barlow's in-depth look at the psychological issues on display in Five Get Into Trouble, I am reminded of a quote in one of the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories - 'I thought I had squeezed all the juice out of this, but I see that there is some left over'. I had never thought of Rooky as having his nickname chosen because he resembles an avian predator like a rook! it's certainly possible. Nor of Richard's fears and evasivesness (until admiring Julian makes him pluck up his courage to offer to hide in Mr Perton's car boot and so help the Five who he wants to like him) being connected to bullying by his father.

But certainly a successful multi-millionaire like Mr Thurlow Kent appears to be would have to be a dominating and probably pretty ruthless character to make all that money, and clearly some of his current and former employees don't like him (as well as Rooky having a grudge) as Richard implies. You get the indication from R's boasts that he partly admires this - but he's probably scared of his father and so has learnt to be secretive and twist the truth a bit to get what he wants rather than confront him. Richard and Aggie the cook, who also has to pluck up her courage to ignore Hunchy's orders by smuggling food to the children, are I suppose in am oral 'grey area' and get a chance to become 'good' by making a positive choice under the stimulus of meeting the Five - 'Our Heroes/ Heroines transform people's lives by their moral example, as in a Victorian/ Edwardian children's story of Enid's childhood (Pollyanna? Anne of Green Gables?), but more subtly and believably?

Congratulations to Judith for her review of the later Find Outers books, and giving deserved kudos to Erns' young relatives Sid and Perce and Liz and Glad as well as Ern himself. I always rather liked this jolly and uninhibited foursome, who only appear rarely and are only met via their interaction with Ern but play an accidental important part in solving some of the mysteries. You can see that they are relaxed and 'natural' characters and don't have to live up to strict parents' demands as 'nicely brought up' middle-class suburban children like the rather 'grand' Mrs Hilton's offspring. Enid catches the contrast well and is not patronising (though I suspect that her ear for the different terminology of working-class and middle-class children in the 1940s has led to critics implying that she looks down on the former, eg on Ern's verbal slip-ups and rambling and vivid imagination).

John P's article on Rubadub as Enid's 'tour de force' sums up what I feel about it very nicely; you can count the finale to this book when Barney meets his father after an emotional 'roller-coaster' as one of the best and most emotionally deep bits of her fiction. I would add to this in a 'Who Says Enid Can't Do Emotion' collection Bill thanking the adventurers for rescuing him quickly at risk to themselves not just going to the authorities in Sea of Adventure and Aunt Lou's emotional breakdown and relief when she mistakenly thinks Fenny has run away due to her cold treatment of her (in fact F has gone shopping in the town near the circus and missed the bus back) at the end of Come To The Circus. Possibly also Mr Jackson's return at the end of Family at Redroofs and Aunt Rose's decision not to abandon her family and return to the city but swallow her pride and try to be a farmer's wife at the end of Six Cousins Again.

A note on John H's article on Billycock Hill. I have wondered about some of the 'loose threads' in the plot myself; my guess is that the 'fake Mr Brent' was one of the spies who was keeping an eye on the air base as he was 'innocently wandering around looking for butterflies' (as he would have explained had a security man spotted and questioned him). He was presumably working out the best time for the fake pilots to get onto the site unobserved and the routine of the security guards, ready to report this to his bosses - and he and the thugs were staying in an unused loft or shed/ garage at Mr Gringle's cottage. Presumbaly the eccentric Mr G was a man of regular habits and rather unobservant and they knew when he would be busy or out in the woods so they could sneak in and out unobserved!

[Julie2owlsdene]

My Journal was waiting for me, when I got home from Devon. Really well packed issue with articles I can't wait to get stuck into. I've read Tony's Editorial, as I always start off there, and so far read John Pickup's excellent and well written article on Rubadub. I too agree with you, John. I feel this was the last book in the series, as the final two didn't quite grab me in the way the other books had.

I'll read all the other articles over the next few days.

Thank you, Tony, and to all who contributed to the articles in this issue of the Journal.

[Moonraker]

I have read this from cover to cover, and it is one of the best ones yet - with every article being read and enjoyed. I am away at the moment, but will add some thoughts when home again.

[John Pickup]

Because of the gripping test match between England and Australia I've not had much time for Journal 81 but the rain has given me a chance to rectify that.

I always start with Tony's editorial, my feelings about those squiggly squares are the same as his. What's a QR code? And only six and a bit years until you have edited 100 journals, Tony. I know you won't let us down.

I've only read the first two articles so far and both are extremely interesting because they're about books I've never owned, never read and never even seen.
I agree with Anita about the timing of the publication of Boys and Girls Circus Book. It seems strange it came out in the middle of the Galliano series.
I didn't realise it was a novel either but it seems to be one worth seeking out. The main characters, although quite young, share a variety of adventures and mix happily with the circus folk. I like Mr Binks,
the description of him snorting with pleasure when he remembers eating the ring-masters coat-tails is typical Enid.
Many years ago, my parents took me to a circus but the only animals I remember being there were some horses and some chimpanzees.

Enid Blyton's Book of the Year sounds fabulous and after reading Helen Richard's article about it I was reminded of the four Enid Blyton Annuals which were published later.
There appears to be some lovely short stories included amongst the nature notes and poems. The story about Hetty biting her nails and having iron nails and tacks served to her as a meal is again typical Enid. I would love to find a copy of this book and I hope Helen finds a more appreciative bookbinder to mend hers.

I shall add more at a later date when I've finished reading what seems to be a very illuminating journal.

[Courtenay]

I've just renewed my subscription and added a donation to help Tony cover a bit more postage!!

Haven't had time to read the entire Journal 81 yet, but so far I've really enjoyed Helen Richards on Enid Blyton's Book of the Year, John Lester on how it felt to read Enid's stories in their original serialised form, and John Pickup's beautifully written article on The Rubadub Mystery and how Enid wrenches our emotions as Barney's search for his father comes to its climax. (I have read that book, but it was at a very difficult time of my life a few years ago and I just couldn't get into it properly and there are big holes in my memory over that period in any case, so I honestly can't remember much of the story and I knew I hadn't done it justice at the time. I really ought to re-read it now I'm in a much better place.)

Among the articles I haven't read yet is Anita's on Boys' and Girls' Circus Book, but that's only because that's another book I definitely want to read for myself (I do love Enid's circus stories) and I don't want too many spoilers!

Many thanks to all the contributors and of course to Tony for diligently pulling it all together, time after time. I reckon we really will get to Journal 100 before he knows it!! (Please don't die laughing just yet, Tony. )

[Julie2owlsdene]

I've read the Journal now, and enjoyed it thoroughly. A lovely article and most interesting, from Anita, about the Boys and Girls Circus Book. I've never read any of the circus books at all, as I'm not a lover of circus's, but Anita's article has me most intrigued with this book, and I'll probably now seek it out. I've looked at it in the Cave of Books, and read the review, and seen the lovely pictures inside, so I think I must really add this book to my collection and give it a read.

Thanks to all who contributed to this lovely well packed Journal, and thanks to Tony for putting it all together for us to enjoy.

[Kate Mary]

I’ve read my Journal from cover to cover and enjoyed all of it. I was particularly pleased to see Helen Richards’ article on Enid Blyton’s Book of the Year, it is a lovely book and often gets overlooked I think. My copy is a 1955 impression of the 1950 reprint so differs slightly from the first edition and has a different illustrator ( Eileen Soper) but all or most of the stories and poems are there. I found it in a charity shop years ago, it is stamped inside Belmont School 9th Sept 1958, I don’t think the teachers used it much it is in very good condition with an almost intact dust jacket, I probably paid 50p or a £1 for it. I hope Helen finds a bookbinder to repair her copy it is most definitely worth saving.

Anita’s articles are always interesting and this one on the Boys’ and Girls’ Circus book is no exception. I read this book for the first time only a few years ago but mine is the Latimer House reprint, it’s a pity it never made it into paperback, it would be much more widely known but I don’t suppose it will now.

I thoroughly enjoyed John Pickup’s brilliant article on The Rubadub Mystery, without doubt one of Enid’ best books. John’s closing sentence seems to imply that he won’t be writing pieces on Rat-A-Tat or Ragamuffin. I hope he changes his mind, I would love to read his thoughts on them, although they don’t reach the heights of Rubadub, The Rat-A-Tat Mystery has always been a favourite of mine.

My favourite series of all is definitely The Five Find-Outers so I found Judith Crabb’s article fascinating and it was good to see the Mary Gernat illustrations. Thank you Judith.

And thank you to all the contributors and to the editor of course. I’ll close before I waffle on for too long, but I will just say Tony spoilt us with three articles on the Famous Five. Thanks again.

[Moonraker]

Rat-a-Tat was always my favourite as a child. I still do the 'footprint-walk' when I can!

What's a QR code?

[Lucky Star]

I sat down over the weekend and devoured Journal 81. Another one sitting job as, once again, it proved too good to put down once I'd started. It was, I think, I who jokingly suggested that Tony would one day be editing Journal 100. I was happy to see it get a mention and of course we all keep our fingers crossed that the magic day will arrive. Till then we'll just keep on taking each wonderful installment as it comes.

I read it cover to cover so started with Anita's Boys and Girl's Circus Book. I've never read this book, actually I've never even seen it except at an EBS Day in Twyford where it was far out of my price range. As always a great read from Anita which left me longing to read the book; or at least to re-read some of Enid's other circus books. The hypothesis that it may have grown out of Enid's failed adult book project is certainly interesting; as is the little mystery about it's publication date. I especially loved the selected paragraphs Anita included to show off Enid's descriptive skills and use of vocabulary. Once again the snobby critics are confounded. Or at least they would be if they could ever be bothered to read these articles. Well done as always Anita.

On to Helen Richards' article on Enid Blyton's Book of the Year. Another book I've never read, and can't remember seeing but it does sound heavenly. A real treasure trove of stories and knowledge tailored to each and every month. But Oh how shocking was that bookbinder's put down. Clearly she didn't value old books at all and so didn't deserve Helen's business or money. I do hope the book has been repaired in the meantime by someone who properly appreciates the joy which old, favourite books bestow.

John Lester's article was, as always, very interesting. In the main this is because I never read Blyton in serial form. By the time I began reading in the 1970s all the books were available in paperback, temptingly lined up on the bookshop or library shelves. I have often wondered what it must have felt like to have to wait weeks and weeks to find out the outcome of a story. John explained the ups and downs of this very well.

I had to concentrate hard on Neville Barlow's excellent article on Five Get into Trouble but it was well worth the effort. A very thought provoking analysis indeed and one which proves yet again that Enid's work goes far deeper than her critics give her credit for.

Part two of Judith Crabb's review of the FFO series was just as good as the first. I'm not sure I'd agree that Vanished Prince is the Zenith of the series but it's certainly one of the most enjoyable entries. And an interesting comparison of Toad of Toad Hall with Goon's use of that epithet to describe Fatty and Co. I was also glad to see Judith devote considerable time to Ern and his family. Ern does indeed come to be almost an honorary Find-Outer by the end of the series. His contributions are considerable in terms of the humanity and humour of the series and, as Judith said, he ends by putting the contributions of several Daykins and Hiltons firmly in the shade.

An excellent analysis of Five Have a Wonderful Time by the always very readable Tim Venning. I liked the comparison with Burgess and Maclean and as always the fact that Tim relates the action to real life locations, with photos to boot, is greatly interesting to me. In this article I particularly enjoyed reading the brief history of "fair folk" provided by Tim. Interesting in it's own right it also put into context the many instances of Enid's characters encountering such people.

Return to Rubadub by John Pickup was a wonderful article. I was glued to it from start to finish. I have always said the The Rubadub Mystery may well be Enid's finest piece of writing and am glad to see that John agreed with me. John caught very well the pathos, the high emotion, the excitement and the dark atmosphere which make up the heart of this excellent book. As someone else said above John leaves us unsure as to whetehr or not he will finish the series in his reviews. I understand the sentiment, he is correct to say that "here on a beach in Rubadub is where it should have ended". However it did carry on and I hope John decides to finish this series of highly entertaining reviews. The last two books suffer badly by comparison to what went before but in their own right they are fairly good books.

John Henstock gives us the next six FF books. A real mixed bag as John says and I broadly agree with his ranking of the books. I too find Billycock Hill a rather doubtful entry to the series. I thoroughly enjoyed reading John's take on these oh so familiar books. Hopefully John will indeed write the story of the last three books sometime.

With a lovely story from the lady herself to finish it is now time for 81 to take up it's deserved place alongside it's peers on the shelf. As always profound thanks go out to all the contributors and most especially to our wonderful and tireless editor Tony for putting together this wonderful magazine.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Another amazing Journal, and thanks for people's comments on my own article.

The pic on p. 25 of Aunt Lou's deceased daughter carol, whose presence looms over 'Come To The Circus', is also a real plus...

John Lester mentioned that picture of Carol a while back, in his thorough analysis of Come to the Circus! I was curious to see it, so I'm pleased to have had the chance at last. The tragedy of Carol haunts that book and makes it feel quite grown up and solemn in some respects. John's current article is interesting, looking at how he first encountered a number of Enid Blyton's books in serial form.


It's good to see the Betty Maxey illustrations accompanying Neville Barlow's piece on Five Get Into Trouble as my Knight paperback (which I've had since childhood) has those pictures and I've always liked them. They may lack the period touch of Eileen Soper's illustrations, but they're stylish and capture the tension of the story well.

The same applies to the Mary Gernat illustrations in Judith Crabb's examination of the Find-Outers books. They're deftly-sketched and full of life, and they evoke childhood days spent devouring Dragon paperback editions of the "Fatty books" (as my sister and I called them) and honing our own detective skills (disguising, shadowing, writing in invisible ink, escaping from locked rooms, etc.) in the hope of finding a mystery to solve.

I'm not keen on the overly farcical aspects of The Mystery of the Vanished Prince or the way certain pieces of "vital information" are provided rather than deduced, but I do love the "pore old gardener" pome. I agree with Judith that "Enid Blyton's contribution to the genre [detective fiction] is so successful because she was being her eclectic, unambiguous, inventive self." Her personal enjoyment at writing books of such wit, energy and ingenuity is evident - the stories swing along with a natural bounce and sparkle, appearing gloriously spontaneous.

Congratulations to Judith for her review of the later Find Outers books, and giving deserved kudos to Erns' young relatives Sid and Perce and Liz and Glad as well as Ern himself. I always rather liked this jolly and uninhibited foursome, who only appear rarely and are only met via their interaction with Ern but play an accidental important part in solving some of the mysteries. You can see that they are relaxed and 'natural' characters and don't have to live up to strict parents' demands as 'nicely brought up' middle-class suburban children like the rather 'grand' Mrs Hilton's offspring. Enid catches the contrast well and is not patronising (though I suspect that her ear for the different terminology of working-class and middle-class children in the 1940s has led to critics implying that she looks down on the former, eg on Ern's verbal slip-ups and rambling and vivid imagination).

Critics who believe Enid Blyton is looking down on the working class by giving a flavour of their speech rhythms and dialects no doubt think the same about authors like Charles Dickens, George Eliot and D. H. Lawrence! If she made her working class characters speak in the same way as her middle class ones, she'd be accused of being fake and unnatural (and I'm sure she'd feel the fakeness herself and would prefer to stick to more natural-sounding speech).

John P's article on Rubadub as Enid's 'tour de force' sums up what I feel about it very nicely; you can count the finale to this book when Barney meets his father after an emotional 'roller-coaster' as one of the best and most emotionally deep bits of her fiction. I would add to this in a 'Who Says Enid Can't Do Emotion' collection Bill thanking the adventurers for rescuing him quickly at risk to themselves not just going to the authorities in Sea of Adventure and Aunt Lou's emotional breakdown and relief when she mistakenly thinks Fenny has run away due to her cold treatment of her (in fact F has gone shopping in the town near the circus and missed the bus back) at the end of Come To The Circus. Possibly also Mr Jackson's return at the end of Family at Redroofs and Aunt Rose's decision not to abandon her family and return to the city but swallow her pride and try to be a farmer's wife at the end of Six Cousins Again.

Yes, Enid Blyton writes in a deceptively simple style but her books have a lot more emotional depth than people might expect. In addition to the titles you've mentioned,Tim, The Six Bad Boys deals with some tough, deep issues - as does The Naughtiest Girl in the School. Even The Enid Blyton Book of Brownies brought tears to my eyes as a child, when a heartbreaking sacrifice had been made and it seemed that the ending was not going to be a happy one.


John Pickup does a fantastic job of conveying the incredible turmoil and emotion of The Rubadub Mystery, looking at how readers are "pummelled" by the story and have their hopes raised only to have them "destroyed." His description of Snubby is spot on: "Without doubt, Snubby is one of Enid's best characters, boisterous, ebullient, eternally cheerful and always cheeky." The Rubadub Mystery is indeed "intense" and, although I enjoy some elements of The Rat-a-Tat Mystery and The Ragamuffin Mystery, they're nowhere near being up to the high standard of the first four Barney books and I can't help sympathising with John's comment that "here on a beach in Rubadub is where it should have ended."

[Anita Bensoussane]

A lovely article and most interesting, from Anita, about the Boys and Girls Circus Book. I've never read any of the circus books at all, as I'm not a lover of circus's, but Anita's article has me most intrigued with this book, and I'll probably now seek it out. I've looked at it in the Cave of Books, and read the review, and seen the lovely pictures inside, so I think I must really add this book to my collection and give it a read.

Thanks, Julie! I hope you find a copy of The Boys' and Girls' Circus Book and that you enjoy reading it. Like Kate Mary, I only have the Latimer House reprint which isn't such a big, chunky volume and doesn't have the original pictures by Hilda McGavin. Luckily, I was able to borrow Tony's News Chronicle edition when writing my article.

Many years ago, my parents took me to a circus but the only animals I remember being there were some horses and some chimpanzees.

In the past I've seen zebras, camels, llamas, big cats, chimpanzees, horses and dogs in circuses. However, I do think the circus way of life must have been hard on many animals and I'm glad that modern circuses concentrate on human acts.

I'll have more to say about the Journal another time. There's so much in it that's joyful, informative and thought-provoking.